Pickard picks up 1st shutout
AVALANCHE 3, DEVILS 0
Correlation does not imply causation — which is a professor’s way of saying that the Avalanche might have beaten New Jersey on Thursday night without making youth- oriented roster moves on defense the day before.
The stop in Denver was the third on a four- gameWestern swing for the franchise that spent six seasons as the Colorado Rockies before heading off to browner pastures.
But with 20- year- old defensemen Chris Bigras and Nikita Zadorov in the lineup after their Wednesday recall from San Antonio, the Avalanche snapped its losing streak at two and knocked off the Devils 3- 0 at the Pepsi Center.
Matt Duchene and Tyson Barrie scored to give Colorado the 2- 0 lead, Carl Soderberg added an empty- netter with 27.5 seconds remaining and Calvin Pickard had 27 saves in claiming his first career shutout. Colorado ( 22-
20- 3) took a more firm grip on what would be the second wildcard playoff spot in the Western Conference, pulling one point ahead of struggling Nashville.
“It feels nice,” Pickard said of the shutout. “Last year I came close a fewtimes on the road, but to actually get it here in front of our fans is pretty special.… Itwas a total team effort and everybody really earned that shutout.”
The Avalanche also beat the Devils 2- 1 in Newark on Dec. 1, with Reto Berra playing a strong game in the net, so Colorado swept the two- game set with New Jersey this season without using Semyon Varlamov in either. Berra is out with an ankle injury and Pickard, who was terrific in spot duty last season and was recalled Dec. 25 from San Antonio for the second time this season, was making only his second start of 2015- 16.
“Varly’s an unbelievable goalie and he’s the starting goalie for this team,” Pickard said. “Every time I get in there, I’m going to take advantage ofmy opportunities as best I can and make it hard to send me back on the bench.” Or to San Antonio. The Avalanche needed only 51 seconds to break through against Devils goalie Cory Schneider. Nick Holden got a pass to Duchene breaking down the slot, and Duchene beat Schneider high and to the stick side for his 22nd goal of the season.
“We wanted to set the tone right away,” Duchene said of the Avalanche, whichwas coming off a horrendous 4- 0 loss at home to Tampa Bay. “We’re a good team when we score first, and getting that one right away was big momentum for us.”
Colorado made it 2- 0 with Barrie’s short- handed goal at 7: 55 of the second. The 24- year- old defenseman has four goals in the past six games.
At even strength, Zadorov was paired with Francois Beauchemin and Bigras with Zach Redmond, which left the Holden- Barrie tandem intact. Bigras’ father, Al, made it to Denver from the Toronto area for his son’s NHL debut, so there was going to be some father- son bonding after this one.
“It was a great experience,” Bigras said. “It was a memory I’ll never forget.”
Avalanche coach Patrick Roy had charged his two young de- fensemen to provide a spark, and he said they delivered. “That’s what we wanted, and I think they did,” Roy said.
He said of Pickard’s effort: “Calvin was really good and I thought we played well in front of him as well. A shutout is a shutout, a goalie has to make some saves and he did.”